Lyrical Poetry Quotes

Hip-hop saved me. It gave me permission to use language in a certain way. It validated my community and my friends. It gave our slang a certain elegance.

I love the lone human voice. It is my greatest love and passion.

I think our storytellers - our songwriters should be great storytellers, and they should be mountain climbers and explorers, because music is something that can cross all different borders.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don't really care for music, do you? It goes like this the fourth, the fifth The minor fall, the major lift The baffled king composing Hallelujah

I've always loved aggressive, hard, noisy, yet melodic bands, and at the same time I've always loved 'Blue' by Joni Mitchell.

About 25 years ago, when I was 15, I wrote a song called 'Indradhanush', which speaks about the seven colours, equating each with emotions that we as human beings experience.

Poetry is music, and nothing but music. Words with musical emphasis.

Songwriting is what I do, and there could be worse burdens to carry.

I don't like the word rock opera, but I'm trying to write on that level that's reserved for plays still, or novels.

Singing in Gaelic is very, very natural to do. I think lends itself very much so to being sung.

Pink Floyd, the most successful progressive rock band of all time, have stood the test of time because the emphasis was always on melody and atmosphere.

I kinda feel that my brother wrote some of the best country lyrics ever - 'The Ballad of Curtis Loew,' 'Mississippi Kid' and that little hit 'Sweet Home Alabama.'

Growing up, I listened to a lot of American singer/songwriters, so a lot of Tom Waits, Paul Simon - also Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. And bands like Vampire Weekend.

I love Lauryn Hill, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple. People like that. People you can really connect to on the most basic human level.

Most people think that I heard Bob Dylan first and got a cap and harmonica. Really, it was Woody Guthrie. He was so influential.

Songwriting is a mysterious art. When I sit down to write a song, the end result should be mysterious and have this dark quality.

I always prefer to write songs about emotional situations and heartbreak because I like getting into the character.

Sounds like the blues are composed of feeling, finesse, and fear.

I am a musician who also does love to explore the world in many ways, so my approaching with my songs, videos, and haikus is: 'Make It Real.'

I've been a total Tom Waits dork for a long, long time.

I have amassed an enormous amount of songs about every particular condition of humankind - children's songs, marriage songs, death songs, love songs, epic songs, mystical songs, songs of leaving, songs of meeting, songs of wonder. I pretty much have got a song for every occasion.

I'm a big fan of songs like Joe Cocker's 'You Are So Beautiful' and Eric Clapton's 'Wonderful Tonight' - songs that go straight to the point.

I've had mentors who were kind of the troubadour singer-songwriters, like Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and Neil Young, and that's just what I've always liked - people who would talk real honestly about their lives and their circumstance.

Most people think a song is a song - three minutes, and you're done. I don't think this way. Songs are my wings. They're what I use to fly. It's very important for me to put everything in the right place.

He touch'd the tender stops of various quills, With eager thought warbling his Doric lay.